Isnaj DuiPoiesis

Isnaj Dui, aka experimental musician Katie English, presents her new full-length Poiesis. True to form, she continues to blend sparse motifs created from all sorts of electronic and acoustic sources. Her trademark Orientalist flute is present, if less so than previously. Slow and artful, English covers a spectrum from playful to quite sinister and tense. Poiesis comes in a hand-stamped sleeve, as with all Rural Colours releases.

REVIEWS

It’s the very welcome return of Isnaj Dui with a new full-length album for Halifax-based Rural Colours. Katie English is ceaselessly creative and has made a collection with a title which reflects that; the word Poiesis derives from Ancient Greek philosophy wherein a person brings into being something which did not exist before. Katie is certainly used to doing just that, and this new CD contains sounds which are more otherworldly and nebulously hard to nail to a wall than ever.

Here’s a mix of electronics and acoustic sounds that gel together to make a continually shifting, amorphous whole. Eerily skeletal rhythms set against little bells, metallic scrapes and oriental flute to push the track ‘Diffraction Gratings’ uneasily onward. Then there are the staccato plucks of tightly wound strings and stark resonances of ‘Concrete Space’, to make you think twice before venturing off the path beyond the tree line to peer into abandoned buildings on your walk home tonight. This is a work brimming with exciting and addictive sounds, especially if you’re a fan of the sinister… and who isn’t? Just in time for Halloween. Boo!